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The most beautiful girl he had ever seen stood before him. 




The F ox That W anted 
Nine Golden Tails 


BY 

Kathleen Gray Nelson 



THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY 
NEW YORK 


Copyright, 1915, by 
THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY 


All rights reserved 


OCT -7 1915 


©GI,AI10923 

Icot 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 
NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


CHAPTER I 

H e was a Japanese fox, and al- 
though he looked just hke any other 
fox, he knew a few things that his Ameri- 
can brothers have never heard about even 
to this day. One of these things was that 
if he lived to be one hundred years old 
without ever being chased by a dog, he 
could become a beautiful woman; if he 
hved for five hundred years and never a 
dog pursued him, he could be changed into 
a mighty wizard who would know more 
than any man on earth; but, better than 
all, after a thousand years of peace he 
[ 5 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

would turn into a celestial fox and have 
nine golden tails. 

Now a beautiful woman does very well 
in her place and it is a great honor to be 
a wise man, but a fox with nine golden 
tails is the most wonderful thing in all the 
world. For that reason when the fox was 
very young, only about sixty or seventy- 
five, he thought he would refuse to be 
changed into either a woman or a wizard 
and would wait for his thousandth birth- 
day. 

“There are enough pretty women and 
wise men in the world now,” he explained 
to his friends of the forest. “The pretty 
women make the trouble and the wise men 
try to straighten it out, and they are both 
kept busy. They don’t have half as much 
fun as a fox.” But as the years went by 
he grew so tired of skulking and hiding 
[ 6 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

about, and being nothing but a common, 
every-day, bushy-tailed gray fox that he 
almost decided to compromise the matter. 

“After all, there are worse things in the 
world than pretty women,” he said, 
scratching his ear, “and wise men have 
their uses.” 

What settled the question quite sud- 
denly was a most exciting adventure he 
had just when he had begun to think he 
was cunning enough to outwit all the dogs 
on the Island of Japan. Now, he had had 
a great deal of experience in this line, and 
it was no wonder he flattered himself his 
dodging tactics were perfect. His ear was 
so trained he could hear a dog barking 
miles away, and he could smell a pack of 
hounds even further than he could hear 
them. Besides, when he looked at their 
tracks he knew exactly how long it had 
[ 7 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

been since they passed that way, and as 
he had many acquaintances among the 
birds and bees and butterflies, they, too, 
often gave him timely warning. 

He had also traveled extensively and 
knew all the safe places for a fox to stop. 
At last, after enduring many hardships 
and sleeping in swamps and on beds of 
nettles, and sometimes having to run all 
night and not sleep at all, and being 
forced to move so many times that he 
never had any home feeling, he had dis- 
covered the most delightful spot imagin- 
able. 

It was a beautiful wood toward the 
north of the island, where the gnarled old 
trees were so thick and crooked and the 
weeds so tall that the sun never touched 
the ground, and it was so dark and gloomy 
there men said it was the home of gnomes 
[ 8 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

and goblins and no one could be induced 
to pass through it. Even the little streams 
gurgled hoarsely and their waters were 
black, and the great owls couldn’t tell 
when it was night and so hooted through- 
out the day, and bats were always flying 
about with shrill screams. 

As many wild creatures looking for 
peace found their way here and never 
again went out of the forest, he had much 
good company. There were foxes, bears, 
birds, deer, monkeys, rabbits, squirrels, 
pigeons, ducks, and a host of tiny things 
like worms, beetles, scorpions, mice, ants, 
lizards, centipedes, frogs, grasshoppers, 
eels, snails, crabs and caterpillars, and also 
a wild hen and her mate, who had a very 
hard time ever raising a family, a pouyou 
brought all the way from South America 
with the initials of a sailor who would 
[ 9 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

never see it again cut on its brown shell 
armor, crickets that the Japanese call 
grass larks and that sing more sweetly 
there than any place in the world, a tor- 
toise so many hundreds of years old he 
didn’t remember when he was horn, a 
rusty old crocodile who called himself 
Luxuriant-Thick-Mud-Master and a par- 
rot that had known the misery of living in 
a cage until once the door was left open. 
Then he went away without saying good- . 
by and flew straight over the hills and 
rivers and rice flelds until he lit on a tree 
in this wood. How he chuckled when he 
knew he had reached the land he had so 
often heard about, the land the birds call 
Napatantutu, which in their language 
means Stay Here Always. And at flrst 
he thought it a great joke to scream “Look 
out,” and a few other human words not 
[ 10 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


SO polite, and throw all the animals in a 
panic. But after he had been there a 
while he either reformed or forgot how 
men talked and so bothered them no more. 

The tortoise having lived longer than 
any of the others, had had time to find out 
more, and he said there was a huge mon- 
ster in a far-distant part of the wood that 
was neither man nor beast, but more dan- 
gerous than either. 

“Its eyes were bright as any glass. 

Its scales were hard as any brass,” 

he declared, and when it roared the whole 
earth grew dark with the smoke from its 
steaming nostrils, and when it laughed a 
flame came out of its mouth that lit up 
the sky, and this Terrible Thing was 
called a dragon. It goes without saying 
they were all very careful to keep away 
[ 11 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

from the particular place where the 
dragon was said to live, and as none of 
them had ever seen it, they were not sure 
it was there. 

The snail had been heard to stoutly de- 
clare he wouldn’t run from it anyway, 
but as the orang-outang reminded him, 
it was very easy to be brave before you saw 
it coming, but he had heard of snails that 
got in such a hurry they left their houses 
behind them. The bear asked the very im- 
portant question: “How many legs has a 
dragon?” And when the tortoise said it 
must have at least a million, since a centi- 
pede had a hundred, the bear was com- 
forted, for as he wisely told the fox, one 
need not be afraid of anything if it has 
more than four legs. 

Now there wasn’t much difference be- 
tween day and night in Napatantutu, for 
[ 12 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

both were happy times, and they could eat 
when they wished and sleep when they 
wished, and they didn’t have to do any- 
thing unless they liked to do it. Some- 
times they would eat and sleep all day, 
and at night, when the green eyes of the 
owls shone like lanterns and the fireflies 
lit up the wood with their little lamps, they 
would meet in a wonderful dell all lined 
with moss softer than velvet carpet, and 
there they would romp and play until 
morning. 

The frogs would sit in a solemn circle 
on toadstools, the worms, because they 
wanted to see what was going on, would 
crawl up on the grand stand, which was the 
pouyou’s back, the ants would hold wee 
pink and blue flowers over them for para- 
sols because they tried to be fashionable, 
the monkey was always the clown, the 
[ 13 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

quiet tortoise the judge and the fox was 
the mischief maker, but too sly to ever be 
caught in his tricks. 

The frog liked to show how far he could 
jump, the deer always wanted to run a 
race, the monkey would put up a target 
for them to throw at, the bear would dance 
on his hind legs, while the crickets and the 
grasshoppers were the band, and when the 
circus was over the porcupine would invite 
them to a quill-ting party. 

Or if they grew tired of fun and frolic 
the pouyou would tell them stories about 
a land far beyond the Sun’s Nest, where 
the birds and butterflies, the parrots and 
lizards were redder than red and greener 
than green ; and again of a wide world of 
water with houses that rocked all the time 
floating on it, but where these houses came 
from or where they went he had been too 
[ 14 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


sick to find out, although he had been in 
one for many sad months. 

And when the thunder rumbled and 
flashes of lightning shot through the 
leaves, and the owls shut their eyes in 
terror and the poor little fireflies put out 
their lights, they would whisper to each 
other that the dragon was around, and 
scamper away and hide until morn- 
ing. 

And then when it was daylight they 
wouldn’t be a bit frightened, and each one 
would say the other ran first, and he only 
ran because some one behind pushed him 
and he couldn’t help it. And they would 
pooh! pooh! and declare in a chorus they 
didn’t believe there was any such thing as 
a dragon. But the fox, who was usually a 
big talker, never had anything to say ex- 
cept once, when he told them quite seri- 
[ 15 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

ously he hoped there was a real, true, live 
dragon. But no one believed him. 

They did not know that when he was a 
baby fox, only about the size of a cat, and 
lived in the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags, 
one cool and dewy night his mother made 
a bed of leaves behind a log, and as she 
cuddled him close to her warm bosom she 
told him how to know if the dogs were 
anywhere around. 

She said when the wind brought him a 
hot breath out of a cold nose, a breath 
that smelt like it had a bark in it, he must 
listen with both ears, and after that if he 
heard a sound that was neither hungry nor 
angry, but came full tilt out of a throat 
just bursting with joy, he would know 
that the dogs were on his trail, for they 
only chased animals for the fun of catch- 
ing them, and because a fox was so cun- 
[ 16 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


ning, it was great sport to run him down. 
And if he saw strange tracks, in which had 
lodged a caterpillar’s hair or an ant’s egg, 
the dogs had passed the day before, but if 
the tracks were bare, the feet that made 
them were not far away. 

And she added if he were smart enough 
to never, never let the dogs get after him, 
when he was a thousand years old a 
dragon would give him nine golden tails. 
It was true no one had ever seen a fox with 
more than one tail, but in the Kojiri, or 
Tails of Ancient Things, which was writ- 
ten on the bark of the oldest trees, it had 
always been told that there would be one 
fox who would in this way become the hero 
of his race, and perhaps he would be that 
very one if he learned to be clever and 
careful. And as his mother was the wisest 
fox on earth, he knew that she knew what 
[ 17 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

she was talking about, and he was glad 
now to hear there was a dragon handy. 

In fact, Napatantutu was exactly the 
kind of a home the fox was looking for, 
dragon and all, and he was quite sure he 
could pass a thousand quiet years here 
without ever hearing the bark of a dog. 
He no longer jumped at the sound of 
every crackling twig or put his ear to the 
ground before he sat down to rest, and 
often he would lie for hours on some cool 
knoll licking his paws and thinking up 
some prank to play on his neighbors. And 
he grew fat and saucy and lazy, and 
whisked his one insignificant tail proudly 
as he walked. 

But, alas! there came an end to these 
delightful days. Late in the afternoon of 
his hundredth birthday, as he stood watch- 
ing two ants wage a fierce battle over a 
[ 18 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

grain of rice, close behind him he heard a 
sound that made his very blood run cold. 
He raised his head and sniffed the air, then 
stood trembling. 

“The dogs!” he groaned, as a second 
time, and nearer now, came the awful 
noise, and he darted like an arrow through 
the forest. 


[ 19 ] 


CHAPTER II 


N OW Nio Kuro, a Prince and the 
most famous hunter in the king- 
dom, had come in his boat down the river 
that ran through the haunted wood. With 
him he had brought many servants and his 
pack of trained leopards, with which he 
hunted, and which were swifter and had 
keener scent than any dogs. Possibly Nio 
Kuro had never heard of this forest, or it 
may have been that he became so excited 
when the leopards started on their wild 
chase that he forgot to be afraid of gob- 
lins. At any rate, he dashed headlong into 
the wood, encouraging his leopards with 
loud shouts, and his servants, after a mo- 
ment’s hesitation, followed him. 

The fox was crashing through the 

[ 20 ] 


/ 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


underbrush just ahead of his pursuers, 
now tearing his way through hanging 
vines and again leaping over rocks and 
streams. The leopards came closer and 
closer behind him. On they flew through 
swamps and thickets, into thorn bushes 
and bramble patches and across deep ra- 
vines, and not even the wind could keep 
up with them. At last the poor fox was 
tired out. His legs were torn and bleed- 
ing, he had left bunches of his fur on many 
a bush and thorn, his feet were bruised 
and lame and his breath almost gone. 

Too late he found that he had slept 
too much and eaten too much during the 
long, comfortable days he had spent in his 
new home, and that he could not rim as 
once he did when he was thin and lithe and 
his legs were hard and his feet like rubber. 
Panting, gasping, his tongue hanging out, 
[ 21 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

foam dripping from his mouth, he went 
bhndly on in irregular leaps. The 
leopards were gaining on him every mo- 
ment. 

Already he could feel the hot breath of 
the spotted leader burn his flanks and he 
knew his time had come. Never, no, 
never, would he be a fox with nine golden 
tails ! He would merely die a cruel death 
and his one poor bushy tail would be 
carried away as a trophy, his body torn 
to pieces by savage beasts. As this sad 
picture rose up before him he made one 
last long leap for liberty, and then his 
trembling legs could carry him no further. 
Driven to bay, he snarled angrily, and 
hacking up against the trunk of a great 
hollow tree, turned to flght his last battle. 

Then a strange thing happened. 

At that very moment a huge and hor- 
[ 22 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


rible creature he knew at once must be 
the dragon rose between him and the mad- 
dened leopards. Its body was covered 
with shining silver scales that crackled like 
burning logs as it moved, its ears were 
big black wings that flapped like sails, its 
great claws had nails as long and sharp as 
knives, its double tongue was two red-hot 
flames, its glaring eyes seemed balls of fire 
and its long tail curled and writhed like a 
mighty snake. 

“There has been a mistake,’’ the dragon 
breathed, and its words came out in smoke. 
“You were one hundred years old this 
morning, and as you have never in all your 
life had to run from a dog, you should 
have been given the chance to become a 
beautiful woman if you wished.” 

“Give me the chance now,” panted the 
fox. “There is nothing I want so much 
[ 2S ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

as to be a woman, even an ugly one will 
do.” 

When the Prince, who could not keep 
up with the chase, appeared on the scene, 
he found the leopards with their tails 
tucked between their legs and their heads 
hanging down. There was no fox any- 
where, but the most beautiful girl he had 
ever seen stood before him. For a time 
'Nio Kuro could only look at her, for he 
was dumb with astonishment. She blushed 
and drew her long black hair over her face 
until he could barely see the tip of her 
nose and her little red mouth. Then she 
knelt before him. 

His attendants now came running up, 
for he had outstripped them all, and they 
too stopped speechless with their mouths 
open. The Prince did not heed them. He 
bent down over the mysterious maiden 
[S4] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

and so far forgot his manners that he took 
both her small hands in his and raised her 
to her feet, for he wanted to see her face 
again, and the more he looked at her the 
lovelier she seemed to him. 

“Who are you, O fairest one?” he asked 
rapturously. “Who is your illustrious 
father and what Is your honored name?” 
But she gazed about her in a puzzled way 
and shook her head. 

“I do not know,” she answered. 

The Prince frowned at her strange re- 
ply, for he could scarcely believe his ears, 
and he even pinched himself under his 
silken tunic to be sure he was not dream- 
ing. But she was so pretty he could not 
be angry with her, and as he looked into 
her soft brown eyes his frown changed into 
a smile, and he said in a very gentle voice : 

“Are you lost? Are there other hunters 

[^ 5 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

here who have brought you with them and 
now you wait for them to return?” 

“I am all alone,” she told him. 

He was so surprised he did not know 
what to say. At last he stammered: 

“Perhaps you are only teasing me — or 
it may be that you are afraid of me be- 
cause I am a stranger. But no harm shall 
come to you through me — that I promise 
you. I am Nio Kuro, a Prince of Hi-no- 
moto, the Land Where the Day Begins. 
Forgive my rudeness in speaking to you, 
but will you not let me guard you and take 
you back to your friends?” 

“I have no friends and nowhere to go,” 
she sighed. 

“But whence do you come, O sweet- 
est creature in all the kingdom?” cried the 
bewildered Prince. Again she shook her 
head. 


[ 26 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

‘‘I belong to the forest,” she said simply. 

“Henceforth you shall belong to me,” 
the Prince declared, and so he took her 
back to his Bamboo Castle as his bride. 
There every one wondered at this fair 
maid of the forest, but no one could find 
out who were her parents or where her 
home had been or anything about her, and 
the Prince was so charmed with her grace 
and beauty he never bothered his head 
about these questions that so worried other 
people. She loved him and he loved her 
and that was all he cared to know about 
her, for the Prince was a very clever man. 

He bought her the loveliest gowns of 
purple and yellow satin, all embroidered 
in roses and green leaves and jeweled 
butterflies, and she had servants to wait 
upon her and fan her and a red and gold 
jinricksha to ride in. He called her a 
[ 27 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

queer Japanese word which means Wild 
Flower, for he said she grew and blos- 
somed in the forest and he transplanted 
her and made her a Princess. But that 
was just his own pet name for her, and he 
ordered that throughout the Land Where 
the Day Begins she should be known as 
the Princess Hoshi, or the Star Princess. 

And he gave a great supper and invited 
all the people of his kingdom to it, and in 
the center of the table was a cake so big it 
looked like a snow-covered mountain, and 
around it were blooming all the joyous 
and lucky flowers, while out in the court 
was a maple tree covered with what every 
one thought at first was autumn leaves, 
but these leaves turned out to be little 
cakes of every color under the sun, and 
each guest was given a red paper bag filled 
with them to carry home. No wonder 
[ 28 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

they were all glad the Prince had found a 
Princess Hoshi, and wished him and his 
Star Princess long life and much joy. It 
is true there were some who, as soon as 
they got away, nodded their heads know- 
ingly as they munched their cakes, and 
said the Princess was an odd person and 
perhaps the Prince would one day wish 
he had left her in the forest. 

Now, a Bamboo Castle is a charming 
place to live. There were wind bells hung 
all along the eaves and they tinkled with 
the whisper of every passing breeze, and 
the windows were of paper, so that when 
the Princess wanted to look out of doors 
all she had to do was to poke a hole in one 
of them with her finger and by putting one 
eye there she could see everything that was 
passing and no one could catch a glimpse 
of her, and there were hundreds of mats 
[ 29 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

on the floor of every room, and these were 
soft and cool to walk upon even in Doyo, 
or the Period of Greatest Heat, and the 
Prince went all the way to the town of 
Hirosaki to get her a bronze mirror that 
she might see how pretty she was, and 
she often looked in it. He also brought 
her a long-haired, fluffy little dog, but 
she screamed and would have noth- 
ing to do with it, so in its place he 
gave her a red cat without any tail that 
purred pleasantly whenever she touched 
it. 

At night she slept on a pillow of shining 
black wood, and on it were sprawling, 
straggling letters of gold that spelled the 
name of the Baku, for the Baku in Japan 
has the body of a horse, the face of a lion, 
the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the 
tail of a cow and the feet of a tiger, and it 
[ 30 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


eats up evil dreams. In fact, it never eats 
anything else, and yet it is always fat. So 
not only did the Princess have everything 
comfortable and agreeable while she was 
awake, but even in her sleep only sweet 
dreams could come to her. 

And on summer evenings when there 
wasn’t any moon the Prince would have 
many bright-colored paper lanterns lit 
and hung in the garden, and lamps that 
looked like flowers would be swung in the 
trees, and then he would have his servants, 
who had been busy all day catching them 
in nets, turn out thousands of fireflies with 
their little golden lights all glowing, and 
the garden would be changed into fairy- 
land. The Princess would sit in an arbor 
fringed with wistaria blossoms and sip her 
tea, while some of her maidens would sing 
for her and others with much bowing and 
[ 31 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

waving of fans would dance in a slow 
and solemn fashion. 

And again when the moon was a big, 
soft, bright ball and the clouds were very 
blue, she and the Prince and her maidens 
would go to the pavilion in the center of 
the garden and climb the many steps to 
the top, where there was a room called 
the moon- vie wing Place of Peace. And 
the Prince would tell his flower-wife in the 
lovely language of the land that the sun 
was a golden crow and the moon a jeweled 
hare, and of how Princess Splendor, the 
dear daughter of the moon, once ran away, 
and when her mother called her she 
climbed home on a moonbeam crying 
silver tears, and all her tears took wings 
and flew down to earth and turned into 
fireflies. 

But the Princess would have thoughts 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


they could not understand and ask ques- 
tions that would make even Nio Kuro 
smile. Once she said to him quite seri- 
ously : 

“Did you ever see a dragon?” 

“Certainly,” he answered. “There were 
many of these wriggling creatures made 
of red and yellow and pink and green 
paper, with lanterns for eyes, carried in 
the festival procession last year. They 
were very amusing.” 

“Paper dragons,” she cried scornfully. 
“I mean live ones.” 

“I have read of them and seen many 
pictures of them,” he told her. “There 
was one called Riu Gu, the Dragon King 
of the World Under the Sea, and when 
he sneezed the waters would jump up and 
tumble over each other in mighty waves, 
and every time the dragon caught cold 
[33 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


many atfishing boat went down. But that 
was years and years ago, and now all the 
dragons are dead.” 

And she only laughed and said no more, 
but she knew better. Perhaps the trouble 
was she knew too much to be a Princess, 
and that was why she at last got dread- 
fully bored. 

But for many months everything went 
on beautifully at Bamboo Castle and the 
Prince and Wild Flower were deliciously 
happy. It was very nice to have a mag- 
nificent home, and a lake full of gold fish, 
and a shady garden where fountains 
trickled drops of music, and little crystal 
streams rushed over the rocks and sang to 
the lilies on their banks. And it was pleas- 
ant to wear lovely clothes, and eat sharks’ 
fins and birds’ nest soup and bamboo 
shoots and lotus bulbs and other delicacies 
[ 34 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

that only very rich people can have in 
Japan. And she was glad to think she 
wasn’t a fox, hiding out in brier patches, 
always listening for dogs and sometimes 
hungry. Surely it was much better to be 
a Princess than a fox. 

Then gradually a change came over her, 
and although she had everything she 
wanted, she was no longer happy. Some- 
times in the day when she lingered by the 
lake and watched the little gold fish dart 
about like flames in the clear water and 
jump up on the bank to get the lard cakes 
and rice balls she had brought them, she 
sighed, and for no reason at all scolded the 
mincing, bias-eyed lady who carried a gor- 
geous parasol over her. 

And again in the starlit night, when she 
walked in the perfumed garden and 
listened to the musical drip, drip of the 
[ 35 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

fountain, and heard the frogs calling to 
each other from the lotos pools, there came 
to her the memory of an enchanted land, 
where bats circled and shrieked, and great 
owls squatted solemnly on the knotty 
branches of the trees, winking and blink- 
ing and never sleeping, and a mighty 
dragon with glaring eyes and shining 
scales lived in a hollow tree. And strange 
to say, when she remembered this dark 
and lonely forest her own garden seemed 
to her but a stupid place. 

After a while she grew tired of living in 
a house, even if it was a Bamboo Castle, 
and whenever she went out having men 
carry her about in a stuffy chair, and she 
longed for the shade of the far-away wood, 
the sound of the hoarsely gurgling streams, 
for a run in the early morning through the 
dew-laden grass, for the hum of the bees, 
[ 36 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


the smell of the dead leaves and a nap on 
a mossy bank. 

So she fretted and grew so discontented 
that ugly lines crept in between her brows, 
the rose all went out of her cheeks, and she 
was so cross the Prince was once heard to 
say he had married a nettle in place of a 
wild flower. She slapped her servants, 
quarreled with her mother-in-law (which 
in Japan is an awful thing to do) , and was 
altogether as disagreeable as a woman 
could be. The Prince was patient. He 
stood it for a long time without saying a 
word and tried in every way to please his 
royal lady. One day he asked: 

“Is there nothing. Fair One, would 
make you kind and sweet again? If any- 
thing will make you happy, only say what 
it is and I will go even to the ends of the 
earth for it.” 


[ 37 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

After thinking a moment the Princess 
answered : 

“Take me back to the forest where you 
found me. If I could only see that dear 
place again I would be content ever after. 
But leave the cruel leopards behind,” she 
added quickly. 

“There is much game there,” he said re- 
gretfully. But she frowned and stamped 
her little foot angrily. 

“You shall not kill anything,” she de- 
clared. “If you do you will break my 
heart.” 

“Perhaps it were best not to hunt 
there,” he acknowledged, thinking of the 
evil spirits that were said to roam this for- 
est. “It is the Land of Roots and the 
Home of Darkness. Why do you want to 
go there? Now that you are out of it I 
[ 38 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

should think you would want to stay 
away.’’ 

But she began to cry and got in such a 
temper that he was willing she should have 
her way, so he had his boat brought out 
and made ready. The next morning he 
and the Princess, with only the rowers to 
keep them company, started on their long 
journey. The Princess was silent, and 
whenever he spoke to her she answered him 
so angrily that he ceased to try to talk 
to her. So they sat on the deck, never 
saying a word, until the fifth morning, 
when they stopped at the very spot he had 
moored his boat the day he had found her 
and brought her away with him. 


[ 39 ] 


CHAPTER III 

W HEN the Princess looked into the 
mysterious land, where not a sound 
was heard, she gathered up her rich silken 
skirt in both hands, and jumping ashore, 
ran as fast as her feet would carry her 
over the same ground where once the 
leopards had chased her when she was a 
fox. She lost one of her sandals, her hair, 
that was fastened high on her head with 
fans and golden pins, slipped down on her 
shoulders, and the jeweled clasp at her 
waist dropped off, but she never stopped 
or looked behind. The Prince followed 
as fast as he could, but so fleet of foot was 
she that she left him far behind, and when 
she reached the big tree with the hollow 
trunk she fell down before it, crying: 
[ 40 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


“Oh, most powerful dragon, make me a 
fox again, for now I know it is better to 
be a fox than a woman.” 

Then out of the hollow tree came the 
same hideous creature she had seen before, 
and when it opened its yawning mouth its 
teeth shone like ivory spears, and she 
thought it was about to swallow her. But 
the dragon only looked at her and sniffed 
scornfully until the smoke from its nos- 
trils darkened the air. 

And when the Prince came in search 
of Wild Flower only a gray fox 
darted through the tangled weeds and 
bushes and was lost in the deep, dark 
wood. The Prince looked after it long- 
ingly. 

“Oi! Oi!” he cried (which is the Jap- 
anese way of saying “Hello!”) “Would 
that I had my leopards with me. Then 
[ 41 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


would I give chase and catch you, my fine 
fellow.’^ 

But he had no time to bother with a fox 
when his loved one was lost in this queer 
and dangerous place, and he rushed fran- 
tically about the forest calling, “Wild 
Flower! Wild Flower! Dear Wild 
Flower!’’ But though he sought her for 
many days, and all the rowers joined in 
the hunt, he never saw her again. So he 
went back to the Bamboo Castle very sad 
and lonely, but every one there, tired of 
her airs and her temper, said she was a 
witch and he was well rid of her. When 
he thought over how peevish she had be- 
come he was inclined to agree with them, 
and finally he married a pretty and ami- 
able little Princess and Wild Flower was 
forgotten. 

And out in the shadowy depths of a cer- 

[4S] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

tain wood a cunning gray fox smiled until 
he showed his shining teeth when a saucy 
bird, mocking the Prince’s call, repeated, 
“Wild Flower! Wild Flower! Dear 
Wild Flower!” in its merry song. 
Then he lay down and rolled over in 
the wet leaves and licked his fur con- 
tentedly. 

“I’m glad I’m out of that,” he said. 
“Now I’ll wait until the thousand years 
are up. Nothing will satisfy me except to 
be a fox with nine golden tails.” 

With never a regret he went back to the 
old life, and hunted mice and creeping 
things when he got hungry, and when 
there was neither moon nor stars, ran 
through the black night to the farm house 
far beyond the edge of the forest, and 
came back in the gray of the morning with 
his lips all bloody and his paws as well — 
[ 43 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

the signs of his midnight feast in the 
chicken yard. 

The wonderful wood, so dark, so still, 
so cool, put on patches of color with the 
passing month, and in the few spots where 
the sunshine sometimes crept, the trees 
grew vivid with the burning glory of 
autumn or pale and cold with the first blue 
blossoms of spring, then softly pink with 
azalea blooms or bright as a glowing sun- 
set with the flowers of peach and cherry. 

And in the Period of Greatest Light 
the leaves would cover the ground and 
make soft beds where all the wild things 
could sleep snug and warm during the 
Period of Greatest Cold. As for the fox, 
though he was a bit quarrelsome, the years 
passed pleasantly and peacefully. No one 
ever again came there to hunt, and such 
queer things had been whispered abroad 
[ M ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

about what happened in this pathless 
country, where lived such strange creat- 
ures as never man had seen, that travelers 
went far out of their way rather than pass 
through it. 

And on stormy nights, when the wind 
howled and windows rattled and the tem- 
pest-torn trees swayed and groaned, 
people all over the island barred their 
doors tight and fast, for they said: “The 
spirits of the wood are out to-night.’’ 
And they lit incense sticks to keep them 
from coming in, and as they sipped their 
tea, told stories about the weird wood. A 
favorite one was that a beautiful Princess 
was kept there a prisoner by a cruel 
dragon, and of how a mighty Prince once 
found her and carried her away to his 
castle, but she heard the dragon calling, 
calling, calling her all the day and all the 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

night, and at last either she slipped out of 
the castle and went to him or else he came 
and stole her away, no one knew just 
which way it was. 

And while other brave men would 
willingly go to rescue her, yet they all 
agreed what was the use, for the dragon 
would get her again and they would have 
their trouble for nothing. So she had been 
there now for hundreds and hundreds of 
years, but was still young and lovely — so 
the story ran. But like all legends, it got 
a little twisted in the telling. 

So many summers and winters came 
and went that every one except the fox 
forgot to count them. At last a famine 
spread over all the land. It was the 
Period of Greatest Heat. No rain had 
fallen for many a week. The earth was 
dry as a dead leaf, the grass turned brown, 
[ 46 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

the streams dried up, the birds all died or 
went away, one by one the animals per- 
ished, and the once beautiful Napatantutu 
was grim and desolate. 

The fox was now five hundred years old. 
His coat of fur was whiter than when he 
was young, his legs were not so nimble and 
some of his teeth were gone. He searched 
the wood for food and water and could 
find neither. He grew so thin that his 
ribs stuck through the skin, so weak he 
trembled like the aspen when he walked. 
The pains of hunger gnawed him day and 
night and he felt as if he must surely 
die. 

Then he mustered up all the strength 
he had left and crawled to the big tree with 
the hollow trunk. There he fell down, a 
heap of skin and bones, and called feebly 
for the dragon. When this terrible creat- 
[ 47 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


ure came out it blew fire and smoke at him 
in awful wrath. 

“I thought you wanted to be a fox with 
nine golden tails. Why have you dis- 
turbed me?” it thundered. 

“A fox with nine golden tails is a nice 
thing to talk about,” the poor fox whim- 
pered, “but a wise man is better than a 
dead fox, even if it had twenty golden 
tails, so make me a wizard. Great One, and 
then will I trouble you no more.” 

“Bah!” cried the dragon with such fury 
that the flames from its mouth flew up to 
the top of the hollow tree. When they 
died away the fox was nowhere to be seen. 
In his place stood a very solemn-looking 
old man with green spectacles and a bald 
head. 

“Dear me, this is most peculiar,” he 
mumbled, as he pulled his long gray whis- 
[ 48 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


kers thoughtfully. “I will go to the near- 
est village and get something to eat, then 
I’ll come back and talk to that dragon a 
while. If I can find out some of his 
secrets I will make myself the wisest man 
that ever lived and then will I become the 
richest.” 

From one end of the land to the other, 
and even to the islands far off the coast, 
spread the fame of the great magician 
who lived in a cave on the sea shore. 
Princes talked about him in their castles, 
and the very poorest people in their little 
bamboo-covered huts as they counted their 
grains of rice told of the wonderful wis- 
dom of the Cave Man, as he was called. 
“He can do many strange things, but 
there is no use going to him if you have not 
money,” they said sadly. “He is hungry 
for gold.” 


[ 49 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

Meanwhile the Cave Man waxed rich. 
The floor of his cavern home was strewn 
with shining gold, ornaments of silver and 
ivory were on the walls, and he had great 
bags of glittering jewels and treasures of 
untold value, all given him by those who 
had come to him for help. 

He could tell when it would rain and 
when a man must plant his crop to reap a 
full harvest, where money was hidden if 
it had been stolen and who had taken it, 
who was the right girl for a man to marry 
and who was his secret enemy; he knew 
what would cure the sick, what would 
drive away evil spirits and everything that 
any one could ask him. But he was also 
very cruel. When the poor sought him in 
their sorrow he took away their last cent, 
and he gave neither to the sick nor to the 
hungry. 


[ 50 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


“A wise man is greater than Princes or 
Kings,’’ he boasted. “Some day I will 
rule the land and all men shall pay tribute 
to me.” And he grew richer and richer 
every day. But still he was not happy. 
No matter how many costly and beautiful 
gifts were brought him, he was never satis- 
fied. He became so mean and miserly that 
at last the good King said : 

“We must rid ourselves of this man. 
Too long have I borne patiently with him 
and allowed him to oppress my people. 
He is very dangerous. If left alone he 
may do great harm and become the curse 
of the Kingdom. He has wisdom and 
wealth and they have not contented him. 
What will he want next ? Our heads, per- 
haps.” 

So one night while the Cave Man slept 
the officers of the King crept in, and after 
[ 51 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


beating him with their spears, bound him 
hand and foot and carried him off to 
prison. All the gold and precious stones 
and splendid gifts the people had brought 
him were sold and the money given to the 
poor, and there was feasting and rejoicing 
everywhere, for every one had grown to 
hate and fear him. 

“You might have done much good,” the 
King told him, “but you worked only evil. 
I shall keep you in prison for many years 
and see if you will learn to be good and 
happy as well as wise.” 

The wizard went back to his dark little 
cell and pulled his long beard all the night 
long. When the sun peeped over the big 
blue mountains the next morning he had 
not closed his eyes. Like many men, wise 
and otherwise, he knew better how to man- 
age other people’s affairs than his own. 

[ 5 ^] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


He had not been able to bring any charms 
away from the cave, he had neither money 
nor friends, and in vain he racked his brain 
for a way of escape from his gloomy 
prison. 

“I hate men,” he cried fiercely. '‘Why 
did I ever become one ? They are nothing 
but stupid, two-legged animals. I see 
plainly now that it is more honor to be 
even a common gray fox than the wisest 
man in the world. Oh, that I had never 
seen that miserable dragon!” 

But it did no good to talk this way. He 
was chained fast to the wall in a horrible 
dungeon, with nothing but bread and 
water to live on, and the thing to worry 
about now was how to get out. Just as 
he was trying to think up some plan there 
came the sound of the key turning in the 
rusty lock. 


[ 53 ] 


CHAPTER IV 


T he next moment he was surprised to 
see an ugly old woman coming 
toward him. She was dressed in a purple 
satin gown with gold birds embroidered 
upon it, her bony fingers sparkled with 
rings, a long chain of pearls was around 
her neck, and he knew by the crown on her 
head that it was the Queen-Mother her- 
self. 

‘T have heard that you were very wise,” 
she said, peering at him. ‘Tf that is true, 
why don’t you get out of this dark hole?” 

“Ah, I could,” he moaned, shaking his 
head sadly, “but my charms are all in the 
cave. I have there a key that will unlock 
any door, a mantle that will make the 
[ 54 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

wearer invisible to mortal eyes, a root that 
will cure any disease, a piece of money 
that the one who carries it will never have 
an empty pocket, and there, too, is the 
famous pearl that will make the woman 
who wears it seem the most beautiful 
woman in the world.” The old woman 
crept closer to him. 

“What did you say about a pearl?” she 
whispered breathlessly. 

“Ah, it is a pearl fit for a Queen,” he 
said, pursing up his lips. “It is big as the 
egg of a swan, shaped like a perfect pear 
and white as a #- dragon’s tooth. The 
woman who wears it hung around her neck 
all men will adore. She will always be 
young, always the loveliest lady that was 
ever seen.” The eyes of the Queen glit- 
tered greedily. 

“Where is that pearl, wizard?” she 
[ 55 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

asked, grasping his arm so tightly that her 
claw-like fingers dug into his fiesh. But 
the wizard only smiled. 

“The wise man tells not all he knows,’’ 
he answered. She caught him by the 
shoulders and shook him fiercely. 

“Speak I Speak!” she commanded. 
“Tell me where you keep this priceless 
pearl or I will have your tongue torn out 
by the roots.” 

“That would be a pity,” he said calmly. 
“Then the pearl would never be found, 
and no woman would have the glory of 
being the most beautiful woman in the 
world.” The old woman screwed up her 
wrinkled face and tapped her foot im- 
patiently on the stone floor. Then she said 
with a cunning leer: 

“If that pearl were mine — so great is 
the power of beauty — I would rule the 
[ 56 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

land in place of my step-son the King. 
Then would you be my chief counsellor 
and next to me in authority, which surely 
would be better than spending all your 
years in a dark dungeon where no one will 
ever hear of your wisdom. You could live 
in my palace and have many servants to 
wait upon you, and if I were the most 
beautiful woman, you could become the 
richest man in the kingdom. It would be 
a sad thing for the pearl to crumble away 
and never be worn by a woman, and also 
for the great Cave Man to die a wretched 
death — perhaps of hunger — in this dirty 
hole.’’ 

‘Tf I were only free I could bring you 
the pear]/’ the wizard answered. “No one 
save iiie can ever get it, for it is watched 
by a dragon with eyes that are always 
open and teeth that are sharp and cruel.” 

[ 57 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

The Queen looked at the door she had just 
unlocked. 

“I have the key,” she said thoughtfully, 
‘‘but there is not only the jailer without, 
but many guards that you must pass.” 

“You have much gold,” he suggested, 
“and yet that pearl is worth more to a 
woman than all the gold and jewels of the 
earth. It will bring her everything her 
heart desires.” She shook her head. 

“I cannot buy all the guards,” she told 
him. Some of them are old and faithful 
servants of the King. You must find 
some other way.” 

“You speak of ways as if they were 
easy to find,” he grumbled, and his heart 
again felt heavy in his breast. 

“They should be — for a wise man,” she 
tauntingly replied. “Surely you must 
have left your wits in the cave too. But I 
[ 58 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

must be off. The King gives a banquet 
to-night in honor of his bride, who is called 
the Fairest Creature of the Flowery King- 
dom. And she likes that better than the 
name of Queen.” 

“Stay,” cried the wizard quickly. “The 
way is found. Know you the weed with 
the purple flower that has crimson dots 
on its petals — a Weed with glossy, pointed 
leaves that grows by every wayside and 
sends out a strange perfume after the sun 
goes down?” The Queen nodded. “Well, 
squeeze the juice from the stem of this 
weed. A few drops of that in the wine 
to-night and all the castle will fall into 
sleep so deep that though I rode away on 
a prancing steed no one would hear me. 
See that my keepers drink of that wine. 
Then open my door, unloose my chains 
and leave the rest to me.” The old woman 
[ 59 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

cackled in her thin, shrill voice. Sud- 
denly she stopped and looked at him sus- 
piciously. 

‘‘But you will return?” she questioned. 
“You will bring that precious pearl to me? 
If you stayed away you would be searched 
for in every corner of the land. You could 
not escape my vengeance. N o matter how 
clever you were, the officers of the King 
would one day find you — even as they 
found you this time — and when you were 
caught your head would be brought back 
to court. Remember my words. Cave 
Man, if you play me false.” 

“Only let me get out, and if I do not 
return you are welcome to the head of the 
wisest man in the kingdom,” he told her. 
“But you must give me seven days — three 
to go, three to come back, and one day to 
persuade the dragon to give me the pearl, 
[ 60 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

for he is a jealous monster and ugly when 
he is roused. It will not be an easy matter 
to get. him to give me his treasure, and no 
one can steal it from him. 

“After the sun has set on the seventh 
day I will stand before you. Wearing 
my magic mantle, I will slip by the soldiers 
and the guards like a puff of wind, and no 
one will see me pass, no one hear my foot- 
steps. And because this time I will have 
all my charms with me, no man can harm 
me. And I will bring you the greatest 
gift that was ever given to a woman.” 

Still chuckling to herself, the old woman 
unlocked the door of the little cell and 
slipped away. When she had gone the 
wizard laughed until his chains rattled. 
Then he lay down on the hard floor and 
fell into a peaceful sleep. 

That night the banquet in the King’s 

[ 61 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

palace was a merry affair, and when the 
rejoicing was at its height the Queen- 
Mother came in and said: 

“Let us send wine to all the servants 
and to the jailers and even to the guards 
without, that they may all drink to the 
health of the lovely Queen.” 

“Good! Good!” cried the King, as he 
raised his cup on high. “Every one in the 
whole city shall have food and drink to- 
night. Let it be given freely to all.” 

But the eyes of many were already so 
heavy that they forgot to cheer his words, 
and soon one by one they fell over as they 
sat eating and rolled upon the floor. At 
last even the King was overcome, and 
went fast asleep in his great carved chair 
with his crown awry. And all of the ser- 
vants, having had much wine, lay at their 
posts hke dead men. 

[ 62 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


When all was still the Queen-Mother 
ran to the prison, and taking the keys 
from the waist of the sleeping jailer, un- 
locked the wizard’s cell. He was expect- 
ing her, and he cried impatiently : 

“You were long in coming. The people 
everywhere will soon be astir, and they will 
capture me and bring me again to the 
King if they meet me on my way to the 
cave.” (For he did not want her to know 
that he was going straight to the haunted 
forest.) While he talked she had un- 
fastened his chains with trembling hands. 

“Go! Go!” she entreated. “There is 
not a moment to be lost. Even now the 
fireflies are putting out their lights and 
waiting for the dawn. See, here is gold 
to pay for your journey and food to last 
you for a week. Hurry back to me with 
the wonderful pearl, and when I am the 
[ 63 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

most beautiful woman in the land you 
shall be the greatest man.” 

“When I return you shall be in truth 
the fairest woman men ever looked upon,” 
he promised solemnly. Then he wrapped 
his cloak about him and bowed himself 
from her presence. 

When he was out of sight of the old 
lady he laughed to himself, and ran like 
a shadow through the sleeping town. On 
and on he went, over the Fertile Plain 
of Sweet Flags and through the long fields 
of waving rice, never once stopping to 
get his breath until he stood on the bank 
of the river. There he found a boat 
fastened to the shore, and soon he was 
rowing up the stream with all his 
might. 

But not yet was he safe. Because so 
many people throughout the country 
[ 64 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

knew the Cave Man and hated him, he was 
in constant fear of being seen. In the 
daytime he hid in the tall rushes on the 
river bank and slept, and all the night he 
plied his oars with feverish zeal, until his 
hands were blistered and his back about 
to break. Once a party of fishermen came 
so close to the reedy shore where he lay 
trembling that he could hear every word 
they said. And what he heard did not 
make him any more comfortable. 

‘‘The King has offered a great price 
for the head of the Cave Man,” said one, 
“and men are hunting all over the island 
for him. Even if he were a needle they 
would find him. On the night of the great 
banquet he cast a spell on the court and 
caused every one to fall asleep. Then he 
opened his prison door and ran away. 
Now the King will know no peace until he 
[ 65 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

is dead. And whoever brings his head 
to the city will be a rich man for life.’’ 

“I wish I could be the lucky one,” said 
another. ‘‘I’ve been looking in every boat 
to-day for him.” It seemed to the fright- 
ened Cave Man they must hear his heart 
beating, so near he was, and perhaps they 
would had they not been so busy talking. 
When at last they went away he did not 
dare to move for a long time, and that 
night he rowed harder and faster than 
ever. 

When the morning of the sixth day 
dawned he cried aloud for joy, for in the 
dim light he saw the familiar shadows of 
Napatantutu. When he had come nearer, 
even within the shade of the great trees 
and the overhanging vines, he leaped out 
of the boat, and as soon as his feet had 
touched the ground, started toward the 
[ 66 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


home of the dragon. He had thrown away 
his cloak, his food, his gold, for he no 
longer had need of them. Once more he 
was to be free. 

In the wood all was silent and lone. 
Not even a bird was stirring as he sped 
over the cool, wet grass. The daylight 
had not yet crept through the thick leaves, 
and once he stumbled over a dead log and 
rolled headlong into a muddy hole. The 
only light he saw came from a frog who 
had filled himself with fireflies, and they 
now shone through his round stomach like 
a shaded lamp as he slept under a shelter- 
ing bush. 

The darkness was just stealing away 
when he came to the big hollow tree and 
knocked twice. 

'‘Alas, Most Powerful One, I am here 
again,’’ he cried, as the dragon writhed 
[ 67 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

slowly out. “It is quite as bad to be a 
wise man as a pretty woman — one is 
stupid, the other useless. A fox is a far 
finer creature than either of them, so make 
me a fox again, O mightiest of living 
things, and this time will I be content for 
the thousand years to pass.” 

“Will you never be satisfied?” snorted 
the dragon. “You are not willing to be 
what nature made you and you don’t like 
anything I do for you. Still, as you have 
not yet been chased by a dog, I must grant 
your wish. But the next time you get into 
trouble you needn’t come to me — remem- 
ber that!” And a moment later a gray 
fox ran past the hollow tree and with 
mighty leaps and bounds went crashing 
through the thicket. 


[ 68 ] 


CHAPTER V 



GAIN the fox went back to his old 


^ ^ sly ways, and for a time was quite 
pleased to be only a fox and live in beauti- 
ful Napantatutu. Of men and men’s 
ways he had quite enough, he was often 
heard to say, and he would cock his head 
to one side and wink and grin every time 
he thought of the poor old lady who was 
still waiting for her pearl. 

The animals came and went, and their 
children and their grandchildren and their 
great-grandchildren, and still he lived on. 
Most foxes would have been happy to 
have such a quiet, comfortable time in an 
enchanted land and wouldn’t have found 
anything to worry about. But after a few 
hundred years he again got restless and 


[ 69 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

tired and nothing was good enough for 
him. He spent all his time planning what 
he would do when he was a fox with 
nine golden tails. He talked of nothing 
else, and became the greatest bore in the 
forest. And he made so much fun of the 
peacock, saying it wore painted feathers, 
that the poor bird got ashamed to spread 
its tail. 

Soon he was shunned by all of the ani- 
mals. The frog hopped away when it saw 
him coming, the grasshopper whirred up 
to the top of the tallest tree, the owls rolled 
their eyes at him, flapped their wings and 
away they went, and even the lazy old tor- 
toise, that every day came out to take its 
nap in a little spot of sunshine, tried to 
crawl away in a hurry when it heard him 
coming, and sometimes in its haste rolled 
all the way down the river bank. 

[ 70 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


Year by year he went from bad to 
worse. He found fault with everybody 
and everything, and was so cross that after 
a while he didn’t have a single friend. He 
not only quarreled with all of his neigh- 
bors and snapped and snarled at every one 
who spoke to him, but he greedily swal- 
lowed any little helpless creatures that 
crossed his path, so that at last all of the 
animals hated him even more than they 
feared him. 

Then, too, he refused to have anything 
to do with any other foxes that found 
their way into the peaceful wood, and 
made their lives miserable with his airs. 

“You are nothing but common beasts,” 
he told them haughtily. “You will never 
have even one golden tail, while I will one 
day be the wonder of the world.” 

“Hadn’t you better wait until you get 
[ 71 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


your fine tails before you brag so much?” 
asked one saucy young fellow. “It may 
not be any better than being a woman or 
a wizard or even an old gray fox.” 

“A fox with nine golden tails is the 
most magnificent thing that was ever seen 
or heard about,” he snarled. “I will be 
the King of Beasts and even men will wor- 
ship me,” and he walked away switching 
his one bushy tail angrily. And he could 
only console himself by thinking what a 
sad thing it was not to be appreciated. 

“They are all jealous of me,” he told 
himself, as he didn’t often get a chance to 
talk to any one else. And he fretted and 
fumed from morning until night, counting 
the years that must pass, and he grew old 
and thin worrying because the days were 
so long. 

But everything comes if you only wait 
[ 72 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

long enough, and at last the day came 
when he was a thousand years old. He 
had stayed all night by the hollow tree so 
that he would be on hand early in the 
morning, and long before it was day he 
began to knock and bark and call for the 
dragon. Even before the sun had touched 
the treetops the dragon came out rubbing 
its eyes sleepily. 

“How dare you wake me up?” cried the 
angry creature, blowing out fire and 
sparks and smoke until it looked like a 
volcano. 

“This is my thousandth birthday, and 
I want my nine tails of gold,” whined the 
fox. 

“You are a blithering old bother,” 
roared the dragon. “You don’t know 
what you want and you don’t want any- 
thing after you get it. Well, this is your 
[ 73 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

last visit to me. Don’t let me ever see you 
again.” With another snort it raised its 
forked tail all covered with silver scales 
high above its head, opened its huge mouth 
and yawned furiously. 

Then it slowly wriggled back into its 
dark bed, and standing without was a fox 
with nine big, bright, glittering, golden 
tails. Never, never had such a thing been 
seen by man or beast ! 

Even the fox was stunned for a mo- 
ment when he found what had happened 
to him. Then he puffed out with pride 
until he almost burst, and held his head 
so high that he nearly fell over backward. 
He stood alone — the wonder of the whole 
world ! 

His first thought was to run and show 
himself to all the animals of the forest. 
And he started to skip joyfully away, but 
[ 74 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

alas! he was as one rooted to the spot. 
Now he found to his horror that his golden 
tails were so heavy he could not walk, 
much less run. He had never thought 
about this, and he stood trembling in his 
tracks, wondering just what he would do 
about it. Besides, although he knew they 
must be very beautiful, he could only twist 
his head far enough around to see the tip 
end of one of them, and he wanted so to 
see them all and know how very grand 
he really did look. 

He kept lifting up first one foot and 
then another, and straining and tugging 
in his struggle to trot off and let himself 
be seen. But never again would he be able 
to run through the cool weeds and leap 
over the streams and roll in the soft moss 
and kick up his heels in rustling beds of 
leaves, for nine tails of gold were an awful 
[ 75 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

load to carry. As he grew more used to 
them he found he could manage to totter 
along with slow and painful steps, but it 
was very hard work. But when he thought 
of what the other poor animals would think 
and say when they beheld him in all his 
glory he again puffed out with pride. 

After all, if he couldn’t get about very 
well now, he would have all of them to 
wait upon him, so it didn’t much matter. 
All he need do was to stand up and be 
admired. It is true he wasn’t a bit com- 
fortable, for the tails were like lead, and 
already his poor back was aching, but still 
one would be willing to have back-ache to 
be the most splendid creature on earth. 
There never had been, there never again 
would be anything like him. He was the 
one superb ornament of the world. He 
kept repeating this to himself with much 
[ 76 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

satisfaction. And if he couldn’t walk, he 
could ride in the future on the backs of his 
adoring slaves and perhaps that was 
better. 

As the fox strutted feebly and slowly 
through the leaves and over the dewy 
grass where he had once scampered and 
frolicked, suddenly he saw a procession 
of all the creatures of the wood, with the 
monkey ahead, coming to meet him, for 
they were very curious to know if he would 
get his golden tails. He stopped and 
stood silent and haughty, waiting for 
them. They gathered around him, but 
said never a word. And so he cried out 
shrilly : 

“Behold your King! I am the most 
wonderful animal in all the world. Never 
again on land or on sea will there be bird 
or beast or fish or fowl that can compare 
[77 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

with me. Stupid things that you are, fall 
down and worship me.” 

Now, what the animals saw was not any- 
thing beautiful or wonderful, but just the 
same old gray fox, with his back bald in 
patches, his legs trembling and his body 
twisted crooked by the weight of nine stiff 
yellow tails that stuck out behind him. 
And the more they looked at him the 
funnier figure he cut. As he ended his 
proud speech he tried to spread his mag- 
nificent tails and strut as he had seen the 
peacock do, but he toppled over backward 
and kicked and squirmed in his efforts to 
get on his feet again. 

At this the animals set up a shout that 
echoed through the forest. The monkey 
laughed until he had to hold on to the limb 
of a tree by his tail to keep from falling 
off, the bear grinned at first and then let 
[ 78 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

out loud ha! ha’s! the hen cackled, the owls 
whoo-ed, the crickets chirped, the pigeons 
coo-ed with such glee they gurgled and 
choked, the rooster crowed, the parrot 
shrieked, the peafowl screamed, the ducks 
squawked, the frogs croaked and young 
Luxuriant-Thick-Mud-Master bellowed 
until the earth shook. 

The fox was at first dazed. Then he 
thought that he was so marvelous an ob- 
ject they had all gone crazy at the sight 
of him, and he waited for them to come 
to their senses. When they had quieted 
down a bit he said scornfully: 

“Foolish things of the wood, I am not 
going to hurt you. If you obey me I shall 
treat you kindly. But you must find me 
the daintiest food and carry me every- 
where I wish to go. Now hurry and get 
me my breakfast.” 

[T9] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


But the animals saw that a fox with 
nine golden tails was but a helpless thing, 
not as much to be feared as the spry and 
snappy old fellow they had known for so 
many years. So some of them laughed 
and some of them sat down to watch him. 

“Obey me!” he screamed, his tongue 
hanging out with rage. “There never be- 
fore was anything made like me.” 

“No, because you are useless,” said the 
tortoise. 

“A fox with nine golden tails is the 
greatest thing in the world,” he went on, 
not noticing the tortoise. 

“How do we know they are not brass 
tails?” asked the owl, and winked 
wisely. 

“And who is going to keep them pol- 
ished?” asked the practical ant, who was 
known as a good housekeeper. 

[ 80 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

“Who? Who-oo?” hooted the owl. 

“Not I,” said the grasshopper promptly, 
for he was afraid of work. 

The fox, puzzled, helpless and angry, 
could only grit his teeth and glare at them. 
A spider, remembering how he had killed 
her whole family with a blow of his paw, 
crept up and stung his leg, the wee soft 
rabbits that he knew were such toothsome 
dainties hopped around him and laid back 
their pretty pink ears and sniffed, the fat 
and fuzzy little chickens, who had been 
taught to hide under mother’s wing and 
hold their breath when he came in sight, 
now flapped their baby wings under his 
very nose and then ran away and cried 
“peep! peep!” at him, and the monkey 
giggled and threw a nut that hit one of his 
fine tails a sounding whack. 

For once the quick wit of the fox de- 

[ 81 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

serted him. He could only turn up his 
nose and snarl slowly, for he was trying 
with all his might to plan what to do next. 
He was the richest fox in the world — the 
only living creature with nine golden tails 
— but what good were they to him if these 
silly creatures would not wait on him and 
worship him? In all the years he had lived 
among them he had been greedy and sel- 
fish and cross and ugly, and now he had 
not a single friend. But he didn’t blame 
himself, he blamed them. And the rage 
shut up within him boiled and bubbled un- 
til he foamed at the mouth. How he hated 
every one of them! Oh, if he could only 
take off his golden tails long enough to 
whip the saucy monkey! And how very 
nice one of those downy little chicks would 
taste! 

‘T have all the gold in the wood,” he 

[ 82 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


said at last. “I am your King and you 
are too stupid to know it.” 

“Only men are ruled by a man because 
he has gold,” said the wise old tortoise. 
“We know better. Had you been brave 
and kind and good we would now be proud 
of you. But you have thought only of 
yourself, now help yourself. You have 
all that you wanted — be satisfied.” 

“As it is daylight I don’t see very well,” 
said the owl, blinking, “but it doesn’t seem 
to me that you are any handsomer with 
your nine golden tails than you were with 
your old gray brush.” 

The fox started. Could he believe his 
ears? Kot any handsomer than any com- 
mon fox — he who had nine wonderful, 
glittering tails of purest gold? 

“You are jealous of me — jealous — 
lealous,” he barked. 

[ 83 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

But as the animals did nothing but 
laugh a great fear came over him. Per- 
haps after all his tails were put on wrong! 
It had really been quite dark when the 
dragon came out, and as he was not used 
to giving away golden tails, he might have 
made a mistake and stuck them on back- 
ward. Something surely was the matter 
with them. He must go to the river at 
once and see for himself. 

But he who had once been so light of 
foot that he hardly left a track in the 
softest mud as he skipped along, now 
found it very, very hard to get across the 
little strip of grass and weeds that lay be- 
tween him and the forest mirror. He put 
forth every bit of his strength and swayed 
and tottered along, and all the animals 
followed him, scampering and laughing 
and pushing and shoving each other. And 
[ 84 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

when he at last reached the bank, squirm 
and twist as he would, he could not get a 
glimpse of himself. He screwed his head 
around until his throat hurt, he twisted his 
thin body until his ribs stuck out, he stood 
on three legs and fell over on his nose 
trying to stand on two, but always the 
tails seemed to turn around the wrong 
way, and the very best he could do 
was to see one of them. The animals 
kept making fun of him as they watched 
him. 

“What are you going to do with them?” 
politely asked the bear. 

“Do you have to wear them all the 
time?” quacked the goose. 

“Oh, no, he is going to lend them to 
the tortoise sometimes,” snickered the 
monkey. The fox, who had almost tied 
himself into a knot in his efforts to throw 
[ 85 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 


a proper shadow, did not take the trouble 
to notice them. 

“One tail is enough for me,” screamed 
the peacock, as he spread his shimmering 
fan and danced until he got so pigeon- 
toed he had to stop. 

“My grandmother — who was nine hun- 
dred if she was a day — told me it wasn’t 
any fun to be better than anybody else,” 
said the parrot, snapping his bill. “One 
got so dreadfully lonely.” 

But the fox only turned his head first 
to one side and then to the other in his 
struggle to find out how he looked. He 
strained and tugged until his tongue hung 
out and water dripped from his jaws, he 
tried so hard to move his stiff tails that his 
muscles cracked, and all the time he kept 
backing out, out, until he stood on the very 
tip edge of the high bank. But he was 
[ 86 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 

so busy looking for his shadow that he 
never thought about anything else, and 
suddenly the dirt crumbled under his feet 
and without a moment’s warning he 
tumbled backward into the river with such 
a mighty splash and splutter that all the 
animals got a shower. 

When he hit the water he struck out 
with all four of his feet, for he was a good 
swimmer, but the tails of gold were like 
iron weights upon his back, and he only 
churned the water into foam as he kicked 
and snorted. Then with one great 
struggle that sent the ripples flying in 
every direction, he shot down like a tor- 
pedo to the very bottom of the deep river. 
And he never came up again! The ani- 
mals shrieked and ran to the river bank. 

The stork, who had been standing on 
one leg all the morning, took down his 
[ 87 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

other in a hurry and hopped over into the 
rushes, where he stretched his long neck 
as far as ever he could and peeped into the 
muddy stream, the monkey wrapped his 
tail around a bush to keep from falling as 
he screwed up one eye and tried in vain to 
see what had become of the fox, Luxuri- 
ant-Thick-Mud-Master toppled off the 
bank in his fright and made another 
splash, a fish, not knowing what to make 
of so much noise, jumped out in the grass 
and turned a somersault, the owl snapped 
both his glassy eyes, but saw nothing, the 
bullfrog dived down as far as he could 
and came up coughing and choking, but 
the fox, golden tails and all, was gone for- 
ever. 

“He made a plunge where the stream was deep 
And saw too late his blunder. 

For he had hardly time to peep 

Before his foolish head went under,” 

[ 88 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


sadly said the tortoise, who prided 
himself on knowing a lot of real poetry. 
But the rabbit winked his long ears 
and whispered to the ant: “Good rid- 
dance!” 

Once again hundreds and hundreds of 
years went by, as they always do if you 
wait a while. Every animal that had 
known the poor fox had been dead a long 
time, and those that came after them told 
this tale as I have told it to you, only they 
weren’t quite certain it was true, and some 
of the young beasts said it was nothing but 
a fairy story. 

But one day a pearl fisher came up the 
river in his little boat, and while he was 
diving down in the deepest part of the 
water he found a queer-looking object 
sticking up in the mud, and when he had 
brought it ashore and washed and 
[ 89 ] 


THE FOX THAT WANTED 

scrubbed it, he found it was a tail of pure 
gold. Hardly believing his good for- 
tune, he took it away with him, and 
many wise men looked at it through 
spectacles and microscopes, and weighed 
it and thumped it and tasted it and 
wrote long papers about it filled with 
so many big words that no one ever read 
them. 

And to-day you may see this very same 
tail, looking rather old and rusty, in one 
of the museums of a foreign city, and be- 
side it is a card telling that this is undoubt- 
edly the golden feather that the great 
King No-Thing-Fan of Japan once wore 
in his crown, which shows that even very 
wise people sometimes make mistakes. 
But it was the fairy godmother to the poor 
pearl diver, who sold it for so much money 
that he was able to buy a cozy little bam- 
[ 90 ] 


NINE GOLDEN TAILS 


boo cottage for his family and to ever after 
give them as much as they wanted to eat, 
and so one of the tails of the fox did some 
good in the world after all. 


THE END. 



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